A mouse colony developing a hereditary, late-appearing lens opacity (senile cataract) as an autosoma, dominant trait is being maintained for biochemical studies on the lens. Raman spectroscopy as a non-invasive, non-destructive probe in the intact, living lens will be used to show the geometrical distribution of sulfhydryl, disulfide, tryptophan and tyrosine and how this distribution changes with aging and cataractogenesis. Such characteristics as the levels of glutathione, protein-SH, protein-disulfide and leucine incorporation have been measured. Future work will include determinations intended to identify the site of the defect: ATP, total soluble protein, urea-soluble and urea-insoluble fractions of water-insoluble potein, membrane permeability, phosphorylation, amino acid uptake and extracellular space. The investigaion will be extended to dogs (which are cataract-prone) and cats (which are cataract resistant). The changes in sulfhydryl and disulfide in aging rat and cow eyes will be compared to determine for certain if there is a fundamental difference between these two species. The effect of long-wave UV on several species of lenses will be determined by monitoring sulfhydryl levels using Raman spectroscopy to determine if changes are precursive or a cataract development. The Raman spectrometer will also be used as a spectrofluorometer to detect possible new fluorophors and their distribution in the lens.